Web Sites

General

• America’s 400th Anniversary Legacy Site
• Bartholomew Gosnold: The Man Who Was Responsible for England's Settling the New World (Dana Huntley, HistoryNet)
• Colonial Settlement, 1600s-1763 (The Library of Congress)
  Includes links to many related documents.
• Cultures at Jamestown (Jamestown Settlement)
• Historic Jamestowne
• Historic Jamestowne (National Park Service)
• Historical Rivalry (James Axtell; Colonial Williamsburg, Winter, 2007)
  The Jamestown and Plymouth colonies in "America's recollection of its history."
• Jamestown Rediscovery (Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities)
• Jamestown Settlement (Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation)
• Jamestown, Virginia, 1607-1907: An Overview (Ervin L. Jordan, Jr., University of Virginia)
• Jamestown – Why There? (Charles A. Grymes, Geography of Virginia)
• Jamestowne Society
• Preservation Virginia
• Secrets of the Dead: Death at Jamestown (PBS)
• Virtual Jamestown

African Americans

• Africans in the Chesapeake (National Park Service)
• Afro-American Sources in Virginia: A Guide to Manuscripts (Michael Plunkett)
• The First Africans to Jamestown (Jamestown 1607)
• The First Black Americans (Tim Hashaw, U.S. News & World Report, Jan. 29, 2007)
• A Study of the Africans and African Americans on Jamestown Island and at Green Spring, 1619-1803 (Martha W. McCartney)
  PDF file (4.52 MB) requires Acrobat Reader.

Bibliographies, Reading Lists & Literature

• Historic Virginia Documents on the Internet (The Library of Virginia)
• Jamestown in Historical Fiction: Selected Titles (The Library of Virginia)
• The Jamestown Records of the Virginia Company of London: A Conservator’s Perspective (Sylvia R. Albro and Holly H. Krueger, The Library of Congress)
• Jamestowne Reading Resources (Jamestowne Society)
• John Smith: A Literary Pioneer (Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina)
• Webography, Settlement of British America (Colonial Williamsburg)
• Women in Jamestown and Colonial Virginia: Selected Bibliography (Old Dominion University Libraries)

Genealogy

• Genealogical Records at the Library of Virginia (The Library of Virginia)
• A Guide to Genealogical Resources at the University of Virginia (Jean L. Cooper)
• Online Catalog (Library of Virginia)
  Note that the Archives and Manuscripts Catalog (third tab) contains 6,000 family Bible records available online in TIFF format.
• Virginia Genealogy at Swem Library (College of William and Mary)
• Virginia GenWeb (James City County Project)

Native Americans

• A Study of Virginia Indians and Jamestown: The First Century (Danielle Moretti-Langholtz)
• Virginia's Early Relations with Native Americans (Colonial Settlement, 1600s-1763, The Library of Congress)

Virginia History

• Myth and Memory: Understanding 400 Years of Virginia History (The Library of Virginia)

Databases

• Ancestry Library Edition (In-Library Use Only)
• HeritageQuest Online   (At the Library)   (From Home)
  Books and the PERiodical Source Index (PERSI) will be especially useful.
• The History Cooperative
  Includes some history journals that offer free access and some that require payment.  Current issues (2001-2008) of The William and Mary Quarterly are available by subscription, or individual articles may be purchased for $10.  The tables of contents are viewable.
• JSTOR (In-Library Use Only)
  The history section includes The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 1893-2004, and The William and Mary Quarterly, 1892-2002.

Digital Libraries

• American Memory (Library of Congress)
  An especially relevant section is The Capital and the Bay: Narratives of Washington and the Chesapeake Bay Region, ca. 1600-1925.
• Family History Archive (Brigham Young University)
• Google Books ( Author or Title Search )
• Internet Text Archive

Libraries & Societies

• Family History Centers in New Jersey (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)
• Free Library of Philadelphia
• Godfrey Memorial Library
  A subscription to the Godfrey Scholar Program provides access to electronic resources.
• The Library Company of Philadelphia
  The Library Company offers electronic resources on site and for home use.
• New England Historic Genealogical Society (Member Benefits)
• New Jersey State Library
• The New York Genealogical & Biographical Society
• The New York Public Library (The Irma and Paul Milstein Division of US History, Local History & Genealogy)
• Rutgers University Libraries (Genealogical Resources)
  

Online Texts

• The Adventures of Captain John Smith, the Founder of the Colony of Virginia.* (Francis Lister Hawks; 1842)
• By-Ways of Virginia History: A Jamestown Memorial....* (R. H. Early; 1907)
• Captain John Smith (1579-1631)...: A Study of His Life and Writings.* (Charles Dudley Warner; 1881)
• Colonial Churches in the Original Colony of Virginia.* (2nd ed., rev.; 1908)
• Colonial Virginia.* (J. A. C. Chandler & T. B. Thames; 1907)
• The Cradle of the Republic: Jamestown and James River.* (Lyon Gardiner Tyler; 1906)
• A Discourse of Virginia.* (Edward Maria Wingfield; 1860)
• Documentary History of Jamestown Island (Martha McCartney) [ Volume 2 ;
  Volume 3 ]
  The first 3 volumes of the 10-volume Jamestown Archeological Assessment, 1992-1996: vol. 1, Narrative History; vol. 2, Land Ownership; vol. 3, Biographies of Owners and Residents.  From National Park Service, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and College of William and Mary. Very large PDF files require Acrobat Reader.
• Early Settlement of Virginia and Virginiola.  (Edward D. Neill, 1878)
• Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography.* (Lyon Gardiner Tyler, ed.; 1915) [ Volume 2 ; Volume 3 ; Volume 4 ; Volume 5 ]
  Jean L. Cooper explains the organization of this set in Virginia -- Biographical Dictionaries.
• Exodus of the Western Nations.* (William Coutts Keppel, Earl of Albemarle; v.1, 1865)
• The First Records of Anglo-American Colonization: Their History. (John Wingate Thornton; 1859)
• The First Republic in America.* (Alexander Brown; 1898)
• The Founding of Jamestown. Percy’s Discourse of Virginia. Wingfield’s Discourse of Virginia. 1607, 1619.* (1907)
• The Genesis of the United States.* (Alexander Brown; 1890-91) [ Volume 2 ]
• Gleanings of Virginia History.* (William Fletcher Boogher; 1903)
• Gosnold and Bacon. The Ancestry of Bartholomew Gosnold. A Collection. (J. Henry Lea; 1904)
• The Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia.* (William Strachey; 1849)
• The History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia.* (William Stith; 1865)
• History of the Virginia Company of London.* (Edward D. Neill; 1869)
• History of Virginia, from its First Settlement to the Present Day.* (John Burk; 1804-05) [ Volume 2 ; Volume 3 ]
• An Introduction to the Records of the Virginia Company of London.* (Susan M. Kingsbury; 1905)
• John Price the Emigrant, Jamestown Colony, 1620.... (Benjamin Luther Price; 1910)
• The Legislature of the Province of Virginia: Its Internal Development.* (Elmer I. Miller; 1907)
• The Life of Captain John Smith, the Founder of Virginia. (W. Gilmore Simms; 1846)
  [ 1867 edition ]
• The London Company of Virginia. (J. Taylor Ellyson; 1908)
• The Making of Virginia and the Middle Colonies, 1578-1701.* (Samuel Adams Drake; 1907)
• Memorial of Edward D. Neill, Praying the Publication of the Records of the Virginia Company, of London.... (Library of Congress; 1868)
• Narratives of Early Virginia, 1606-1625.* (Lyon Gardiner Tyler, ed.; 1907)
• Pioneers of the Old South; A Chronicle of English Colonial Beginnings.* (Mary Johnston; 1920)
• Pocahontas, Alias Matoaka, and Her Descendants Through Her Marriage...with John Rolfe, Gentleman.... (Wyndham Robertson; 1887)
• Relation of Virginia, 1609. (Henry Spelman; 1872)
• The Site of Old "James Towne," 1607-1698.* (Samuel H. Yonge; 1907)
• Social Life of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century.* (Philip Alexander Bruce; 1907)
• Studies on the Geography of Virginia.* (George Thomas Surface; 1907)
• The Thomas Jefferson Papers, Series 8: Virginia Records, 1606-1737. (The Library of Congress)
  Includes Records of the Virginia Company, v. 1-4, published 1906-35.
• Virginia: A History of the People.* (John Esten Cooke; 1911)
• The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
  Selected early volumes published between 1893 and 1922.
• Virginia Vetusta, During the Reign of James the First. (Edward D. Neill; 1885)
  "A supplement to The History of the Virginia Company."

*Listed in the Jamestowne Society's Jamestowne Reading Resources.

Search Tips

• All Databases
  • It is always a good idea to read Search Tips, Search Help, etc., if available.
• Ancestry, Library Edition
  • Click the Search tab at the top of the page.  Then scroll down to the map and click on Virginia to see Virginia genealogy resources.
  • Be sure that the Exact matches only box is checked, even if you are doing a Soundex search or using wildcards (below).
  • If you are not finding an ancestor, omit first or last name or use just the first few letters (at least 3) and the truncation symbol *: digg* will find Digges or Diggs. 
  • If just one letter is in doubt, after at least 3 letters, substitute ?: chilt?n will find Chilton or Chilten.  To find other variations (Chelton, Shilton, Shelton), do additional searches.
• Google, Google Books, Google Scholar
  • To search an ancestor's full name or any phrase, enclose it in quotation marks: "bartholomew gosnold"
  • In Google Books, use Advanced Book Search to search by author, title, publisher, etc.
  • If a pre-1923 publication is listed in Google Books as Snippet view or No preview available, check the bottom line of the entry, far right.  If a More editions link is present, one of those editions may offer a full view.
  • To print a page in Google Books (Full view only), use the Clip tool (upper right).  Hold down the left mouse button and drag a box around what you want to print.  When you let loose of the mouse button, a "Share this clip" box will appear.  Select and copy the URL in the Image box.  Paste that into your browser and print the resulting page.  Alternatively, use the Download tool and print from the downloaded book.
• HeritageQuest Online
  • To search for Jamestown in the Places section of PERSI (The PERiodical Source Index), the state is Virginia and the county can be just James.
  • When searching an ancestor's name as a phrase in the Books section, be certain to do the search twice in case the entries are arranged by surname: "edward chilton" and "chilton edward"
• Internet Documents
  • Use the browser's Find feature (in Internet Explorer, on the Edit menu or Control-F) to find an ancestor's name in a long page.
• JSTOR
  • Advanced Search, below the search box on the front page, may be easier and more accurate.

Last revised: October 14, 2009